COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTIONGold Medal Winner, Great American Beer Festival (Ales: Brown, Bitter and Pale 1987, Barleywine 1988,1992,1995). Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is an award winning example of the English Barley Wine style. It boasts a dense, fruity bouquet; an extremely rich, intense, bittersweet palate; and a deep, reddish-brown color. This ale is superbly balanced between an almost overpowering maltiness and a wonderfully bittersweet hoppiness.

Bottle bought at World Market. Nice, dark amber-brown barley wine that will surely sneak up on you! Very eclectic blend of tastes. Decent beer. I wouldn’t want it every day, but nice for certain occasions.

Classic American barley wine, young bottle, glad I finally got my hands on one as I have been wanting to taste this for a long time. Apparently in existence since 1983 and in that sense one of the forerunners of the American craft beer revolution. Pale beige, moussy, dense, audibly crackling head with good retention (certainly in view of the ABV), over a beautifully vermillion to copper coloured, clear beer with lively sparkling, misty with deposit. Strongly perfumed, candied aroma of candied cherries, orange peel, port wine, biscuit, bitterwort, Kirsch, chocolate cookies, candied banana, hazelnut oil, cognac, pink grapefruit, cured meat, treacle-waffles... Candied sweet onset, cherries, dates, raisins, but this refined sweetness is almost immediately accompanied by a powerful hop bitterness, much earlier than expected; mouthfeel is oily, fatty and resiny, with a thick caramel maltiness with a deeply nutty, toasted character as well, enhancing the bitterness, which becomes very big in the end, almost like a double IPA, but less aromatic, more in a deep, peppery, spicy way and lasting for a very long time after swallowing, blocking any residual malt sweetness and drying mouth and throat. This is indeed one "beast of a beer" as the back label claims, very bold and powerful, though it ends up less complex and vinous than I expected; I know that American-style barley wines can be very hoppy especially in comparison with their English-style counterparts, and this is a very good example of that. I guess this beer deserves its status as the archetypical American-style barley wine and since I’m a hophead as well as an amateur of the barley wine style, I greatly enjoyed this. One of those ’must taste’ beers.

Pours warm copper with a creamy light tan head. Zesty aroma of caramel, hop resin and some vanilla. Full body, thick feel, average carbonation. Taste of licorice, pine and some alcohol with a long and hoppy finish.

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